Unvaccinated Drivers Are More Likely To Crash In Ontario & Insurance Policies Could Change
“We don't want unvaccinated people to feel persecuted,"
There's no denying that various COVID-19 measures of the last couple of years have caused some big debates, from topics like masking to vaccination, but new research might've ignited another fire.
A study conducted at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital has curiously linked unvaccinated people in Ontario to a higher number of traffic accidents and was even published in The American Journal of Medicine.
Nearly 7,000 traffic accidents requiring emergency care were analyzed and over 11 million people were involved in the study, with 16% of those involved not having received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Of a total of 6,682 crashes, 1,682 (or 25%) were found to have involved unvaccinated adults.
The study said that generated a higher level of risk than what is typically associated with a driver who has diabetes or dementia and the only higher level of risk was any crash that involved alcohol misuse.
“Our study demonstrated traffic risks were 50%-70% more frequent for adults who had not been vaccinated compared to those who had,” said Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute. “This does not mean COVID-19 vaccination directly prevents traffic crashes. Instead, it suggests that adults who do not follow public health advice may also neglect the rules of the road.”
The study went as far as to suggest that unvaccinated people examine their own driving behaviours and that family doctors talk to any vaccine-hesitant patients about it.
"We don't want unvaccinated people to feel persecuted and are not suggesting they stop driving; instead, we suggest they drive a bit more carefully,” said Dr. Redelmeier. “Physicians counselling patients who decline COVID-19 vaccination could consider safety reminders so their patients do not become traffic statistics.”
According to the latest data from Public Health Ontario, nearly 84% of Ontarians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
While the data does speak for itself, a section of this study even touched on how random the correlation between traffic accidents and the choice to not get vaccinated may seem.
"Whether COVID vaccination is associated with increased traffic risks, however, has not been tested and might seem surprising," the study said. "Simple immune activation against a coronavirus, for example, has no direct effect on traffic behaviour or the risk of a motor vehicle crash. Instead, we theorized that individual adults who tend to resist public health recommendations might also neglect basic road safety guidelines."
The study's findings might ignite some debate but also some interest from insurance companies, who heavily rely on statistics like this to determine their costs.
"The observed risks might also justify changes to driver insurance policies in the future," the study said.